There and Back Again

So I've finally returned from my sunny vacation to Florida. Good to see some serious blogging has been done in my absence.
John and I left bright and early (like 8 AM) on Thursday for Edgewater. The nine hour drive provided smooth sailing, but we were still plenty tired by the time we arrived.

Arrive we did and seeing my family was most wonderful. My little sister continues to grow in my absences, threatening to become as tall as me in no time. Once John and I had settled in, Mom fulfilled our desire to dine on delicious seafood by taking us to P.J.'s. I enjoyed seafood bisque and sauteed mushrooms and even snitched some of Amaya's fried calamari. We skipped over to nearby New Smyrna beach for a few minutes, but quickly decided to leave the darkness to the many unruly teenagers mucking about.

The next day began our Independence Day celebrations. We headed out for a highly anticipated trip to the beach. In otherwords, yaaay my favorite!! John thinks the beach rocks too.



The water was surprisingly frigid, but enjoyable after I adapted. Once we'd had our share of surf and sun, we went home to prepare for the Ormond Beach Fourth of July festival. Ormond always puts on a good show, with four separate concert arenas on either side of the huge bridge leading to the beach. I'd be more specific if I could just remember the name of the river. Anyhow, there's always good music and good food and, most importantly, the fancy fireworks display set off from a big barge in the middle of the river.

We brought along our patriotic hats to commemorate the event.

We arrived super early, so we got a front row seat right on the riverside.




John, Amaya, and I set off across the bridge to visit the other events and kill time. Amaya got to play on the various inflated whatsits in the kids' area and John and I got excited over lizards.

We also enjoyed looking for interesting things in the river at the base of the bridge. You can see the bridge in the background of this picture, but it doesn't really show how large the thing is. Even so, it took about thirty minutes to casually walk across.

A few turkey legs and some fried shrimp later, the night finally rendered the sky ready for fireworks. So, for all the fireworks you missed over in Ireland...

Anyone else see a funny skull in this photo? Because I do.

I managed to capture one neat formation. Notice the two red rings towards the bottom.


I wish I could have captured the especially impressive heart shaped fireworks. Even more exciting, I wish I could have captured the Smiley Face shaped fireworks we saw at Daytona Beach the next day! How do they do it?
As for the next day, after much deliberation we decided upon the Ponce Inlet Light House.

We had a peek inside the light keepers' homes, took a nature walk, and us three kids hauled ourselves all the way to the top of the lighthouse.


The view was certainly worth it: a 360 degree panorama of the beach and inlet.

The breeze felt great too after all those steps.



We also got to see a variety of light house lights. The large lights rotated, creating a pretty disco-ball effect around the room.


Afterwards, we hoped to visit a sea turtle museum, but only got in a few minutes before they locked up.




F.Y.I. that simultaneous leg lift between me and my sister was not planned.
Next, came Daytona Beach, naturally.

We walked out on the jetty, watched various fishermen do their thing, and even spotted a few dolphins.


Dinner was absolutely fabulous at the new Aquarium restaurant.

Holding up to it's name, there were pretty aquariums everywhere. But the fun didn't stop there.
The menus lit up.

The glass table top glowed with various colored lights, the bar pulsated with blue light, and basically the whole place was made in various ways to feel like an aquarium. Even the bill book lit up! The restaurant was also right on the marina, so there was a very nice view.


After such an event packed day, we were pretty tired the following morning. John and I went out and did a little beach side shopping. John grilled burgers for dinner. Most of the day, however, was relaxing with the family and watching movies.
Overall a very nice vacation. It's nice to be back in my own room, but I do look forward to my next visit.